Historian, Randolph County native to speak at library Sept. 12

Dr. Debra Reid, a historian and native of Randolph County, will introduce the Crossroads: Change in Rural America exhibit at the Chester Public Library on Sept. 12.

Submitted by the Chester public library

updated: 8/29/2018 1:46 PM

The Chester Public Library will host a special program by historian and Randolph County native Dr. Debra Reid at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 12.

The program will begin the six-week visit of the Museum on Main Street exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution and Illinois Humanities at the Chester Public Library. Dr. Reid is the co-curator of the exhibit, Crossroads: Change in Rural America.

Dr. Reid is from Rockwood and is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Texas A & M and taught in the history department at Eastern Illinois University. She is currently the Curator of Agriculture and the Environment at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan.

As a nationally regarded historian, she was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to be co-curator of the exhibition. Dr. Reid will give a presentation entitled "Crossroads: Changes in Rural America and in Illinois". She will discuss the content of the exhibit from her perspective as one of its producers, and from her personal perspective as a native of Randolph County.

The Crossroads exhibit will begin a yearlong tour through six communities in Illinois. Chester Public Library is the first location in the state and Dr. Reid will officially introduce the new exhibition.